I was on set once where I watched the most painful thing imaginable. It was an actor trying to squeeze out a tear. He was playing a character that had just witnessed the death of a family member and the … Read More
Here’s an interesting story. When method actor, Mickey Rourke, was starting out he was having problems with a monologue he was doing to get into acting school. In the monologue, he had to speak to his father in the play, … Read More
Over the years, I’ve discovered that most actors DON’T want to become a genius at acting. If you ask them if they want to attain acting mastery at the highest level, they will swear blind that they do. But actions … Read More
It’s election day. Tomorrow there will be a new Prime Minister or the same one. Either way, Brexit still divides the nation, food banks are now a part of our society, there has been an epidemic of knife-related killings on … Read More
Being an audience pleaser. Now, you may be thinking that that’s what you should be doing as an actor, pleasing the audience. Well, this is a very counterintuitive sin. You see if you are worried consciously or unconsciously about being … Read More
Delusion. Let’s kick this one off with a quote from Johann Peter Eckermann, a German poet and author from the 1800s, who was a friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the famous writer and statesmen. “At table, the ladies praised … Read More
Envy. This sin is a philosophical one, but one that needs discussing because when this insidious sin enters the psyche, it destroys everything in its path, including acting talent. When I was starting out as an actor, I shared a … Read More
This Sin is a controversial one. Which is…using the Stanislavski System. Stanislavski’s System has always been held up as the number one way to train an actor for decades in this country. Drama schools swear by it. Drama students study … Read More
Which is… …not being able to trigger emotion on demand. Many (probably most) actors have no plan for how emotion can be authentically triggered at will. They will say that they will just imagine the characters’ circumstances and BOOM, an … Read More
Deadly Acting Sin #2, which is capable of killing off your acting ability quicker than saying, Martin Scorsese. So what is it? Drum roll…outside-in characterisation. Many an actor will read the play, come to some logical conclusions about the character … Read More